Warnings: Um... Subaru being a prick? It's kinda funny. And... Muraki. He gets a warning all to himself.
Chapter Two
Hisoka hated school, he really did. He hadn’t attended since he was ten years old, when his parents had discovered his empathy and decided he was ‘unfit’ for human company. It was the one thing he hadn’t complained about. For a child so small, so intelligent, and so mouthy, school had been a nightmare anyway.
Whenever a case involved a school, Hisoka usually got recruited to go undercover as a student. He supposed he would complain, if not for the fact that he didn’t really need to keep up with the homework. They were almost never there longer than a week, in any case.
He still laughed when he remembered the school for the Kyoto case; it was the one thing that he could look back on in that whole mess without cringing. How the hell they had managed to pass the four of themselves off as related was beyond him. Apparently, the people in Kyoto weren’t too bright.
If they were lucky, the people in Tokyo wouldn’t be too bright either. At least he wasn’t trying to pass Tsuzuki off as his brother again.
“Class? We have a new student today.” Hisoka waited, tapping his foot impatiently. He didn’t think he ever really learned anything when he went undercover, and he hated the uniforms. At least this was one of the ones that zipped up the front, rather than a button down shirt with tie. He hated ties. He could never get them on right and Tsuzuki thought it was hilarious. “This is Kurosaki Hisoka.”
“Nice to meet you all.” He hated being polite, too. He scanned the classroom for any interesting people. Most of them looked fairly bored, but there was a young man in the third row back who was smiling cheerfully (and rather shyly) at him. That wasn’t so much what caught Hisoka’s notice; that was the fact that he practically radiated magic.
Their eyes locked and for a minute they simply stared at each other. Hisoka looked away first, hoping that whoever the kid was, he hadn’t realized more about him than Hisoka wanted to. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to avoid him or go talk to him.
Apparently the gods had made the decision for him. “Ah, Kurosaki-kun, there’s an empty seat in the third row, next to Sakurazuka-kun.”
Hisoka blinked, then sighed slightly. “Hai,” he said, and went over to appropriate the empty seat.
The teacher was one of the no-nonsense types, so Seimei didn’t have time to do more than smile at Hisoka before they had started working. He was rather puzzled at the sudden introduction of a dead boy in his class. He’d seen stranger things, really, like talking Trees, but this was unusual. And sitting next to him.
At least he seemed nice.
Hisoka tapped at the desk and tried to pay attention as the teacher started talking about algebra. As if he cared at all. He took notes and tried not to look too often at Seimei. The notes drifted into doodles. He’d learned algebra before anyway.
Lunch break arrived. Hisoka picked up his lunch and followed the herd of teenagers outside, where most of them seemed to eat. He looked around for a place to sit and saw Seimei plopped under a tree. The other boy smiled at him and waved for him to come over.
Hisoka gave up on being undercover. Seimei obviously knew that there was something odd about him, so there was no point in trying to hide it. “Hi,” he said uncertainly, sitting down underneath the tree.
“I thought you’d be out here,” Seimei replied. “When you sit inside by yourself, everyone looks at you funny. My name’s Seimei, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you.” Hisoka had never really had much in the way of social skills. Probably all that quality time spent in the cellar. “You can call me Hisoka.”
“Thanks.” Seimei studied his lunch. “So what are you . . . uh . . . interested in?” He was trying to make conversation and finding that he was singularly bad at it. He didn’t want to just ask ‘what are you doing here’ because Hisoka would probably take it as ‘what’s a dead boy doing in school’ rather than ‘what are you studying.’
Hisoka was reflected on the miracle that he’d found someone as socially impaired as him. “Uhm, well,” he said. “I’m studying . . . history.” He pulled the first subject he thought of out of thin air, then quickly reversed the line of questioning. “You?”
“Drawing and reading,” Seimei said.
Hisoka offered him a slight smile. “At the same time?”
“No,” Seimei said with a laugh. “Tried it once. Very difficult.”
Hisoka searched for another line of conversation. He wanted to ask Seimei about his magic, but he usually didn’t start actually asking questions until he’d been there for a day or two. Still, the conversation wasn’t going to go anywhere if he didn’t. And even if he blew his cover, Tsuzuki was still playing at being nurse. “Interested in magic?” he asked casually.
Seimei looked slightly taken aback, then threw in the towel. “Yeah.”
“I just asked because you . . .” Hisoka searched for the correct term, “Um . . .”
“Glow?” Seimei asked dryly.
“Yeah,” Hisoka admitted. “Not that most people would notice.”
“Okay, I guess if we’re going to be forward with each other, why are you still in school when you’re . . . er . . . dead?”
Hisoka blinked, looking startled. “How the hell do you know that?”
“I can just tell,” Seimei said with a shrug.
Hisoka frowned for a minute. “Wait. What was your last name again?”
“Sakurazuka.”
“Oh, that explains it, I think,” Hisoka said.
“Explains what?” Seimei asked, looking slightly shifty-eyed.
“Well, if my history is correct,” Hisoka said, “you’re part of the Sakurazuka Clan, and they deal in the strings of life.”
“Okay,” Seimei said. “You’re right.”
Hisoka sighed and took pity on him. “When you use the kind of onymoujitsu that revolves around life and death, after a while you can see the strings that attach people to life, basically. Even if you don’t realize it, because everyone looks the same, when you see someone who’s no longer tied, you’ll notice.”
“Oh,” Seimei said. “How do you know that?”
“It’s part of the joy of being dead,” Hisoka said dryly. “You find out things like this.”
“Yes, but, you’re here and you’re dead,” Seimei said. “And it’s not even that you’re just a spirit, you’re here.” He paused. “That’s not normal.”
Hisoka rolled his eyes. “I’m supposed to be undercover, you know,” he said with a slight smile.
“No one’s listening,” Seimei said, waving aside his concerns.
Hisoka shrugged. “Let’s just say I’m here on official business.”
Seimei frowned, looking nervous.
“Look, it’s nothing to do with you,” Hisoka said dismissively. “Just a classmate of yours. She died before her time and we’re here to find out why.”
“Lemme guess,” Seimei said, as the pieces began to fall into place, “Monou Kotori.”
Hisoka looked faintly surprised. “Yeah. You know anything about it?”
“No,” Seimei said, looking slightly sullen. “Unfortunately not. Except that her brother disappeared.”
“Yeah, we’re trying to track him down, but no luck so far,” Hisoka said with a shrug. “But we only got here yesterday, so we haven’t done much so far.”
“We? Who’s the we?” Seimei asked.
“Oh, my partner is here too,” Hisoka said. “Shinigami work in pairs.”
Seimei carefully filed away the information that shinigami was the technical term, but said nothing about it. “So where’s he? Or she. I’d like to know that it’s coming.”
Hisoka rolled his eyes. “He’s masquerading as the school nurse. And he’s incompetent.”
Seimei smiled. “Mental note: do not get sick.”
“I’d highly advise it,” Hisoka said, though he was smiling too. “He’s not an incompetent partner, though.”
“Just an incompetent nurse?”
“Yeah,” Hisoka said, with a fond smile.
Seimei blinked as something suddenly occurred to him. “How old are you, really?”
“Technically, I’m sixteen, but I’ve been dead for two years. Make of that what you will,” Hisoka said with a shrug.
“So you’re eighteen.”
“If you say so.”
The bell rang, signifying the end of lunch. The two of them stood up and threw away their trash from lunch. “If you find out anything else,” Hisoka said, “since by the look on your face I just know you’re going to start asking questions, please let me know.”
Seimei looked slightly guilty. “Am I that transparent?”
“No. I’m an empath.” Hisoka smiled slightly.
“Oh, that’s gotta suck sometimes.”
Hisoka blinked at him. “Yeah,” he finally said. “Yeah, it really does.”
~~~~
“Shirou-kuuuuuuun!”
Kamui looked up, slightly frightened, as Keiichi bounced his way across the path to him. “Ohayo,” he said weakly, trying not to look as traumatized as he was.
Keiichi smiled cheerfully at him. “Honda-sensei assigned me to keep track of your makeup work for you,” he said, handing Kamui a large stack of papers.
Kamui took it and looked down at it. “Uh . . . when is this due?”
Keiichi blinked. “Well, most of it due yesterday actually, but I’m sure he’ll understand if you don’t get it in right away . . .” He ignored the slight whimpering noise Kamui made and charged on bravely with the conversation. “Where’ve you been anyway? I heard something about an earthquake . . . or something like that anyway.”
Kamui thought quickly to come up with a convincing lie. “I, er, I was, um, place we were living was destroyed and um I had to transfer here . . .” He realized that he still did not technically know the blonde boy’s name. Sorata had told him that someone would find him to show him around to his classes and things like that, but it was still his first day at CLAMP Campus.
Keiichi seemed to suddenly realize this as well. “Oh, my name’s Segawa Keiichi,” he said. “I’m supposed to show you around for the day. I think you’ll really like it here, it’s way better than most schools.” He took Kamui by the arm and started to tug him in the direction of one of the larger buildings.
Kamui squeaked, but allowed Keiichi to tow him along.
“Did you bring your lunch?” Keiichi asked cheerfully as he waved at various buildings and telling Kamui what was inside. “There are some great places on campus that you can buy food but I usually bring mine because my mother is such a great cook.”
“Uh . . . yeah,” Kamui said, completely overwhelmed and having lost track of what question he was answering anyway.
“You brought your lunch?” Keiichi clarified.
“Yeah . . .”
“That’s great! We can eat lunch together!” Keiichi towed Kamui inside a classroom building.
“Okay,” Kamui said, resisting the urge to add ‘don’t hurt me’ after that. Once inside, Keiichi immediately got hijacked by a few other classmates who needed to speak to him. Apparently, he was class president . . . or something like that. Kamui was too overwhelmed to pay much attention.
“Oh, Shirou-kun, your first three classes will be in this building, just follow the room numbers,” Keiichi said. “Anyone can give you directions if you ask. I’ll meet you for lunch, okay?”
Before Kamui could answer, Keiichi was dragged off by his classmates, leaving Kamui to sit in bewilderment.
~~~~
There were few people on earth that Seishirou considered might actually be as cute as his Subaru-kun, but the Kamui of the Dragons of Heaven was definitely one of them. He was small and frail, just like Subaru-kun had been, and his huge lavender eyes definitely gave him points.
Really, Seishirou thought, the two of them would make a cute couple.
Maybe he’d just kill Kamui.
Still, it was quite amusing to sit and watch them ‘study’. Kamui had a tendency to blush quite a bit. Seishirou was considering coming over and telling Kamui to either stop hitting on Subaru with a two-by-four, or at least have the common decency to not flirt with Keiichi too.
He wandered close enough to hear their conversation, keeping himself carefully concealed with his magic, though he knew it would only be so long before Subaru sensed his presence.
“. . .I enrolled in the college section because it’s more convenient,” Subaru was saying.
Seishirou paused at this. The image of Subaru in school again was rather cute. It was too bad the CLAMP Campus college section didn’t wear uniforms. Then he really would’ve gotten a laugh out of it.
“To search for the Sakurazukamori?” Kamui asked softly.
That’s right, Seishirou thought, glaring at Kamui. He’s mine. Leave him alone.
::Seishirou, stop being such a dickhead,:: the Tree said pleasantly.
Seishirou promptly told the Tree to sod off.
Subaru nodded slightly. “It seems my ties with that aren’t over yet.” He paused to take a cigarette out of the pack, giving Seishirou time to gloat. “So, you have a test next week?”
Kamui nodded, looking forlorn. He was quite good at looking forlorn, actually. It was rather amusing. “English. And then a math test, too.”
::If you’re so obsessed with the Sumeragi, I don’t see why you won’t just stop being such an ass,:: the Tree said mildly. They’d had this argument numerous times.
::I did kill his sister, you know,:: Seishirou replied.
::Yeah, and she thinks you’re being a dickhead too,:: the Tree responded, with a very un-tree-like snort.
Seishirou started to ignore the Tree, realizing he’d missed out on part of the conversation and they were back to talking about him.
“You shouldn’t smoke so much,” Kamui was saying.
“It seems to lower people’s powers,” Subaru replied, “but apparently I’m the opposite. So it doesn’t matter to me.”
Kamui paused, looking steadfastly at the ground. “That’s also because of the Sakurazukamori?”
Subaru looked away, unknowingly looking directly at Seishirou. “If I don’t do so . . . I can’t beat him.”
Kamui blushed, seeming embarrassed. “It’s still bad for your body,” he muttered.
Subaru ignored this, pulling out a book. “Shall we begin?” he asked.
Kamui looked slightly relieved. “Yeah, sure.”
Seishirou tuned out again as they began to study, simply focusing on Subaru’s profile. The Sumeragi’s beauty had only increased with age, though Seishirou had only seen him off and on over the past nine years. Maybe it was time he did something about that . . . their fight at Nakano Sun Plaza had been the most fun he’d had in years.
The tutoring session was interrupted when Keiichi arrived to spirit Kamui away for lunch. Subaru lit another cigarette and breathed out slowly, lifting his face to the sky.
“You may as well show yourself,” he said mildly. “I know you’re here.”
Seishirou chuckled and stepped out of the illusion he’d woven to hide himself. “Why didn’t you say something earlier?” he asked, sitting down at the small table in the chair Kamui had been occupying.
Subaru sneered at him. “I know it pisses you off to see me with Kamui.”
Seishirou didn’t flinch, though he knew Subaru was right and the fact somewhat irritated him. “Whatever makes you think that?” he asked calmly.
“Because you think I belong to you.” Subaru blew smoke into Seishirou’s face. “Just proves that I don’t.”
Seishirou smiled pleasantly and took his sunglasses off, hooking them on the front pocket of his coat. He reached for the pack of cigarettes. “May I?”
“If you must.”
Seishirou slid a cigarette out of the pack and picked up Subaru’s lighter. He had a perfectly good pack of cigarettes and lighter in his coat pocket, but annoying Subaru was a fine art, and one he excelled at. “I think you and Kamui make an adorable couple, if you must know.”
“Which just means you really want to kill him, now doesn’t it,” Subaru replied pleasantly.
Seishirou just smiled. “Would you be upset if I did?”
“Wanted to kill or did kill him?”
Seishirou waved a hand dismissively. “Either.”
“I’d love it if you wanted to kill him,” Subaru said with a smile.
“And if I did kill him?”
“You won’t.”
“Not the issue,” Seishirou pointed out. “We’re speaking on hypothetical terms.”
Subaru shrugged. “In that case, I refuse to entertain the hypothesis.”
“How do you know I won’t kill him?” Seishirou asked.
“For starters,” Subaru said, “I won’t let you, simply because it would piss you off that I can’t. Secondly, he’s our Kamui. We’re not going to let you get that close. You can’t take us all on.”
“Oh?” Seishirou asked. “I was standing here watching you for a good hour and a half, but you did nothing.”
“You weren’t trying to do anything.”
“You don’t know that.”
Subaru gave him a disgusted look, not even bothering to reply.
“I’m sure you could have sensed whether or not I was working any ‘jitsu, but I’m not above buying a sniper rifle, you know. In fact, I already own two, and put both to good use.”
“You were standing too close to use a sniper rifle.”
“I own a handgun too, if you want to get into the technicalities. Which you obviously do.”
“All right, you could have shot him,” Subaru conceded. “But that would have marred your sense of style. It wouldn’t have been dramatic enough.”
“I’m glad you seem to know me so well, Subaru-kun.”
“Is there a particular reason for this visit?”
“There wasn’t going to be a visit,” Seishirou said with a shrug. “You invited me over. I was just spying.”
“Then your audience is over. You may go now.”
Seishirou just smiled. He was rather glad Subaru had finally grown a spine. It made their conversations so much more interesting. And besides, he was secure in the knowledge that he could kick Subaru’s ass if he really needed to. So he stood up and put the cigarette out on the table. “It was nice talking to you,” he said pleasantly.
“Made my day,” Subaru replied.
Seishirou leaned forward, moving uncomfortably close to Subaru, so their faces were only inches apart. “Did it really? I’m flattered.”
“Yes.” Subaru smirked, then beat Seishirou to the punch, leaning forward and brushing his lips over the older man’s. “Have a nice day,” he said, getting up and walking away.
Seishirou just smiled. “You too, Subaru-kun.”
::Are you happy now that you’ve made a total ass out of yourself?:: the Tree asked.
::Quite pleased, yes. Subaru-kun’s turned into a very interesting individual. I’m going to have fun with this.::
::Of course you are.::
Seishirou laughed, giving Subaru’s retreating back a grin, and turned to walk in the opposite direction.
He didn’t see Subaru wipe his mouth off on the back of his hand with a disgusted expression.
~~~~
“Satsuki, I need a favor,” Fuuma called up to where Satsuki was ensconced in the Beast. He’d had no idea that being the Dark Kamui would involved administrative shit, really. “Nataku’s destroyed his home tube.”
Satsuki emerged from the Beast. “So?” she asked coolly.
“So, they had him in there for a reason,” Fuuma said irritably. He’d been all for destroying it, really. Unnecessary explosions were quite the thing these days. But still, he had to think about the welfare of his Angels, something that annoyed him terribly. “Maintainence and crap like that. I don’t want him falling apart and I don’t have the know-how to deal with it.”
“And you want me to do what exactly?” Satsuki asked. Not snidely, just being sure that her instructions were clear.
“Find someone who does have the know-how, obviously,” Fuuma said, rolling his eyes. “Really, mad scientists have to be a dime a dozen in Tokyo. And I want the best.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Satsuki said. “Would you like me to recover Nataku’s information while I’m working?”
“That would be dandy,” Fuuma said with a grin.
“Come back in a half hour,” Satsuki said, turning back to the computer.
“Quick work,” Fuuma remarked, and wandered off. He spent the half hour fending off Kanoe’s slut attacks. He pondered dropping in on Kakyou, but with only a half hour to spare, it could wait. He could pester the Dreamgazer that evening. Really, it was just so much fun to see how snide he could make Kakyou be.
“So what’ve you got for me?” he asked, walking back into the Beast’s chamber.
“Nataku’s information has all been transferred to the Beast,” Satsuki said. “We’ll need to build another lab. I also have a name and address for you.”
“Do tell,” Fuuma said, grinning cheerfully.
She gave him the address.
“That’s a brothel,” Fuuma replied.
“I don’t want to know how you know that,” Satsuki said calmly. “It’s the only address even remotely attached to the name. Go there and ask the manager to help you find Muraki Kazutaka.”
~~~~
Fuuma leafed through the file Satsuki had printed for him while he took the taxi. This Muraki guy had quite a reputation. Murder was the primary charge in most of the cases. Fuuma was beginning to seriously doubt Satsuki’s sanity. Not that she’d been exhibiting many signs of it anyway, but she’d picked someone like this to take care of Nataku? This just couldn’t go well.
Still, he’d said to get the best, and as a scientist, Muraki’s reputation was impeccable. He’d been involved in both cloning and resurrection experiments, and that was exactly what Nataku was. So the guy was lunatic. So what else was new. He was getting used to that.
What did he really have to deal with? Satsuki was a sociopath, no doubt about that. And whatever crimes against humanity she hadn’t committed, Seishirou had. In fact, he’d done it with a style and grace that Fuuma rather envied. Yuuto was a total playboy, which meant that he’d done everything Seishirou and Satsuki hadn’t. Nataku was technically a dead five year old girl that had been recreated from his father’s parts and kept in a tube for years. Kanoe was such a slut that it wasn’t even funny. Kakyou had been in a coma for nine years just because some chick he’d met like three times had gotten killed (by Seishirou, no less), and managed to be one of the most pissy people Fuuma had ever met. Kusanagi was just a tree hugger, and even if they were technically killing off humanity for the sake of the planet, tree huggers annoyed him.
And then, of course, there was himself.
He pushed the door open to the brothel and went up to the front desk.
“Konban wa,” the man at the front desk said. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m looking for Muraki Kazutaka,” Fuuma said.
The man’s attitude changed immediately, from congenial business owner to suspicious. He gave Fuuma a hard look, then turned to one of the other men milling around. “Rei, watch the desk for a bit,” he said, then beckoned for Fuuma to follow him.
Fuuma did so, following him to one of the rooms normally reserved for business. “My name’s Monou Fuuma,” he offered, since the man was still giving him suspicious looks. It never hurt to be friendly.
“Oriya. Why are you looking for Muraki?”
“To employ his services.”
Oriya gave him another long look. “You’re just a kid,” he said derisively.
“Too true,” Fuuma said. “That’s why I need his services.”
“Yeah?” Oriya was still looking at him funny. “For what?”
“I’ve kinda got this problem,” Fuuma said cheerfully, “involving cloning and genetics and dead people and . . . it’s very long and complicated, but trust me, Muraki’s the guy for it. I’ve done my research. Well. I had my underlings do my research.”
“Give me your phone number,” Oriya said, “and I’ll tell him you’re interested.”
“And will he actually call me?” Fuuma asked dryly.
“Depends on whether or not he’s in the mood,” Oriya said.
“If it’s money that’s the problem -- ”
“It’s not,” Oriya interrupted. “He has plenty. I’m just not sure whether he’s in the job market right now.”
Fuuma looked puzzled by this, but doubted the further questioning would get him anywhere. “Well, if he doesn’t call me in a couple days I’ll have to find someone else. It’s rather urgent.”
“If he’s interested, he’ll call you tonight,” Oriya said with a shrug. “He doesn’t think about things.”
Fuuma scribbled the phone number Kanoe had told him would ring in his room, though no one had actually called it yet, and gave it to Oriya. “Here ya go,” he said.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” Oriya swept past him and out of the room without another word.
~~~~
Chapter Three
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